Within the prior art, automatic call distribution (ACD) systems route calls to agents based on pre-administered data such as particular expertise of an agent and/or dynamic information such as the length of time an agent has been idle. The prior art methods of determining which agents to route calls to is particularly well suited for call centers that are performing a catalog ordering service or answering financial type questions. In these types of applications for call centers, the location of the agent and necessary information are not factors since they are fixed or known. In general, the agents work fixed shifts and during these shifts they are at a designated call center terminal. Hence, once an agent is selected based on pre-administered data, an incoming call can be easily routed to the selected agent. The information needed by the agent is provided from a computer data base to the designated call center terminal.
Whereas the prior art call distribution systems have worked well for the traditional call center, there are many situations where the prior art automatic call distribution systems do not function well. In non-traditional call center applications, the agents are mobile, and the information that is needed by the agent is not present within a computer data base, but rather, physical objects must be inspected in order to determine the actual information. One example is a retail store such as a large hardware store. In such a situation, certain employees do have specific skills, e.g., plumbing; however, because of the nature of the business, a particular employee may not be present in the area of the store when information is needed to answer a customer call. For example, a customer may call wanting to know if a particular item is available and obtain a physical description of the item. This requires a store employee to physically go to a shelf, to examine the number of units available and to describe to the customer the physical appearance of the item. The customer may need expert advice in how to use the particular item, or the customer may simply need to know the physical description.
Another example of non-traditional call center applications is a hospital. When a call is received within a hospital for nurse assistance for a particular patient, it is highly desirable that the call be routed to a nurse who is familiar with the patient or who is located in close proximity to the patient.